Venture capital investment in Irish tech firms fell by a quarter to €739m in 2018

Funding into Irish technology firms fell by 25% to €739m in 2018. This is according to the Irish Venture Capital Association VenturePulse survey published today in association with William Fry.

The fourth quarter of 2018 showed a decline in funding of 35% to €115m, continuing the trend of previous quarters.

The average deal size in 2018 fell from €3.5m to €3.2m driven by a decline in larger investments of more than €10m. These were down 30% on 2017 levels with companies in this category raising €432m in 2018 compared to €610m in 2017. Only 12 companies raised more than €10m in 2018.

The IVCA pointed out that since the onset of the credit crunch in 2008, in excess of 1,550 Irish SMEs have raised venture capital of €5.5bn. These funds were raised almost exclusively by Irish VC fund managers who during this period supported the creation of up to 20,000 jobs; attracted over €2bn of capital into Ireland and geared up the State’s investment through the Seed & Venture Capital Programme by almost 16 times.

IVCA say the Irish venture capital community continues to be the main source of funding for Irish innovative SMEs both through direct investment and as the local lead investor for international syndicate investors who accounted for 50% of the funding raised by Irish SMEs in 2018.

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